Democrats say Ward was a volunteer in Boise and Virginia

Democratic leaders in Idaho and Virginia say Vaughn Ward, one of the candidates in the Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District, volunteered for Democratic elected officials. Ward was an intern for former state lawmaker Jim Hansen, now the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, in either 1989 or 1990 while he was attending Boise State University (BSU), according to Hansen. The Democratic Party of Virginia also has Ward on record as a campaign volunteer during the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of Tim Kaine, who now the head of the Democratic National Committee.

Ward’s campaign manager, Ryan O’Barto, said Ward never backed Kaine’s campaign, and that his work as a college intern didn’t reflect his political ideology. “He was not a supporter of Gov. Kaine whatsoever,” O’Barto said. “He was not a supporter then. He isn’t a supporter now. He never will be a supporter.”

“We don’t have any more details about what sort of volunteer work he did, but we do have him in our volunteer database,” said Jared Leopold, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia. Leopold said party records list a Vaughn L. Ward of Arlington, Va. as a Kaine volunteer.

O’Barto said that there must be a mistake with the Kaine campaign’s records. “Nothing’s ever perfect on a campaign,” he said.

BSU’s political science department offers internships with state legislators. The current director of the internship program, Dr. Gary Moncrief, said interns generally choose who to work with based on party preference, though that is not always the case.

Hansen told IdahoReporter.com he believed Ward chose to work for him at the Idaho Capitol because of Hansen’s party affiliation. “I always thought of him as a Democrat,” Hansen said about Ward. “I think he picked me … Every intern who worked for me liked the Democratic policy and was espousing a more progressive world view.” Hansen said interns like Ward helped do research on different policy areas, and read through proposed legislation. He also said he understood that people can change political ideology throughout their lives. “When I was a kid, I was a Republican,” Hansen said.

“Vaughn, for college credit, worked for several legislators,” said O’Barto, who went on to say that Ward couldn’t recall who the other state lawmakers were or their party affiliation. O’Barto said Ward’s political beliefs are apparent in the work he did after graduating from BSU. “He went around the state working to elect a United State senator (Dirk Kempthorne) who was a Republican,” O’Barto said. After volunteering on Kempthorne’s campaign, he worked as an aide for Kempthorne in Washington, D.C. Ward was the Nevada state director for John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008.

Vaughn Ward is running in the Republican 1st District congressional primary, Vaughn Ward is running in the Republican 1st District congressional primary, Vaughn Ward is running in the Republican 1st District congressional primary, Vaughn Ward is running in the Republican 1st District congressional primary, Vaughn Ward is running in the Republican 1st District congressional primary

I will NEVER vote for Vaughn Ward…..I learned a very HUGE lesson with McCain and that was a HUGE lesson ……LET’S TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK ………Better wake up , people , or you won’t have a Country to take back and TIME is not on our side….Talk to people…..It’s PAST time to let others do our talking for us …………..

I believe he’s another RINO and apparently he wants to keep living off the government. We don’t need another career politician! We need CITIZEN legislators who work in the real world, serve a term or two, then return to the real world to work under the laws they passed! I’m a tea party conservative and I would rather vote for Minnick then the two front runners in the Republican primary..at least I know where he truly stands on issues. Raul Labrador never met an illegal he wouldn’t support! Wake up people and realize that guys like Ward and Labrador are born and breed, self-serving politicians!

Well, being Democratic falls in line with his personal philosophy. Let the taxpayers support his wife in a large salaried position (Fanny Mae?) from her home in Eagle, while that Organization squabbles Taxpayers money and needs more bailout money. Yet publicly he states he is a Conservative Republican and bailouts and Government owned business needs to stop. I guess he thinks believe what I say carries more weight than what he does.

Paul Pyle: How many illegal alien bills does Labrador have to continue to write in the Idaho House, or how many times does he have to vote for current system enforcement before people like you will come around? Is it because he “looks Mexican”? You guys drive me nuts, do some homework before you vote. It’s people like you that vote for nut-jobs because they don’t do their homework!

When I scanned over to the side to see who puts out this IdahoReporter.com, I see it is the Ron Paul Idaho Freedom Foundation. When Ron Paul’s Independent Republican Party helps reelect all the Democrats, including Pres. Obama, we can thank all those who believed in him, but, like so many who were sorry they voted for Obama, never realized how wrong they were until it was too late.

Ward supporters are spinning that the Dems are out to get him. U’ll notice – Ward has not personally addressed this issue. His campaign mgr is doing a lousy job trying to cover for him. Ward has no principles — look at all the missteps so far. Do we really want to send this guy to Congress. Labrador now has our vote!!

I watched the debate last night and I think I have to go with Labrador. Ward just seemed “awkward” to me–like he didn’t really want to address the meat of any question (I know, like any politician) and kept falling back on his military b.s. (who cares?). Also, his laundry list of “mistakes” makes me nervous, despite his rhetoric that he’s human, but always admits his mistakes and corrects them. That’s well and good, but the volume of mistakes tells me that he doesn’t seem to learn from them. Although Labrador does champion illegals, it IS his job as an attorney and like any of us, I assume he would like to be good at it. I believe that he truly does want to at least enforce current immigration laws–we have to start somewhere.